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There are significant tax cuts and no federal election in Canada's immediate future after the minority government's multi-billion dollar tax relief package passed easily in the House of Commons Wednesday.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and his party sat out the confidence vote on the Conservative's so-called mini budget, which includes a cut of the GST to 5 per cent. The Bloc Québécois and NDP voted against the government.

The vote passed 127 to 76.

Mr. Dion drew taunts and rebuke from all sides during Question Period for his decision to abstain.

“Before the Leader of the Opposition discovered the strategy of ... abstaining on tax cuts and everything else, he used to vote against tax cuts,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said when pressed by Mr. Dion for an apology on the income trust debacle of a year ago.

NDP Leader Jack Layton accused Mr. Dion of working in partnership with the Conservatives.

“Now that the Liberals have rolled over and joined the Prime Minister in coalition, what we see is Canada going in the wrong direction even faster,” Mr. Layton said.

But Mr. Dion held firm to his assertion that Canadians don't want another election.

“It seems that the two other parties of the opposition want to go with an election now, the government wants to go with an election now, it's very obvious,” Mr. Dion said after he emerged from a weekly caucus meeting.

“So it remains to us to choose our time.”

Mr. Dion, who dismissed the proposed GST cut as poor fiscal policy, said the Liberals would also consider rescinding the cut if they formed the next government.

All three opposition parties had to vote against the Tories to trigger an election.

Earlier Wednesday, Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale told CBC his party won't be “suckered” into the Conservative's strategy of forcing multiple confidence votes in a bid to trigger an early election.

“What the Prime Minister is trying to do is litter the landscape with booby traps and land mines and we're just not going to be suckered into playing his game,” Mr. Goodale said.

“We will decide as the Official Opposition when we think the time is appropriate to bring the government down. When that time arrives, we will in fact do that.”

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's fall economic update includes a promise of nearly $60-billion in tax relief over six years, with significant cuts to personal income and corporate taxes.

About 25 per cent of the tax relief is earmarked for businesses – hit hard by the rising dollar – and will make Canada's corporate tax rate the lowest among major industrialized economies by 2012.